OK - maybe that title was a just a bit too much of an obvious attempt at getting your attention – but I have it, no?
Podcasts #10 and #11 are in the sidebar and ready to be appreciated. So – appreciate!
The tenth podcast – "Bargirls and the Sex Industry" – is a light-yet-frank exploration into one aspect of "sex work" in Korea, although sex isn't directly for sale in the place to which I went. In the Ginger bar in Itaewon, I interview a "bargirl" – or what many refer to as a "juicy girl," a term that refers to the fact that the customer buys a young lady at the bar a drink in exchange for her time, conversation, and undivided attention. The young lady interviewed – Sonya – is friendly, candid, and surprisingly comfortable being on the mike, which was connected to some pretty intense audio equipment strewn out across the table, in addition to the mike I was using for my end of the conversation. Kudos for her! Anyway, in this very upscale bar, there were semi-private "booths" – imagine booths in a diner, but with sliding wood and glass panel doors – which was a lifesaver in terms of being able to get a clear recording. What is most interesting about podcasting is the fact that with audio, access is much much less of an issue that photography. There is no way I would have received consent to photograph a woman working in a place such as this, for as identities are exposed, lives are ruined. In this way, I am able to convey an aspect of real Seoul life that would otherwise be difficult to offer directly. For those of you who would tease and say, "Yeah, you would do that kinda podcast, you dirty bird," let me just remind everyone that my podcasts have been about a lot more than that. Stop playa hatin' and admit that you have the same curiosity as I do. Grr.
The eleventh podcast – "Country in the City" – is the first of what I'll call a "soundscape" podcast (with a little acknowledgement to the "Herro Flom Japan" podcast). I basically sat along the side of the newly-restored Cheongyecheon stream and let my two boom microphones and my mixer rip. There were so many layers of sounds from where I was sitting – the sound of traffic above, the flowing water right beneath my feet, and the chatter of excited passersby – it was a real blast to record. I offer this cast at the same level of sampling rate and compression level that most people use for music MP3's – waaaaay overkill for voice. But in order to preserve the richness of the soundscape, I kept the compression low, although there was no real need to keep the recording in stereo, since it just doubles the file size without really adding much to the experience overall. So enjoy this little 'cast, since it's super soothing and so sumptuously Seoul. You like that last sentence? Was it too much for ya? Anyway, enjoy!
